Western Standard - Regina city councillors, Muslim community split over mosque call to prayer permit

00:00:00.000 I represent my ward, and I've been hearing a lot of people who are opposed to the call to prayer being on loudspeakers. 1.00

00:00:10.540 So, I'm in agreement with that.

00:00:13.800 And I have no, I think I believe in freedom of religion.

00:00:17.280 I believe people should be able to practice whatever they want. 0.97

00:00:21.260 But I think keep it within your church, keep it within your mosque, keep it within the walls of your church. 0.76

00:00:25.980 It doesn't have to be broadcasted in the broader community. 0.94

00:00:28.860 and i think the big thing too is you know these are words and words can be interpreted in many

00:00:34.780 different ways and other people can interpret the words of a prayer in certain ways which

00:00:42.460 can be both positive and negative which could create i think division in the community so

00:00:48.060 i guess the bottom line is just you know keep it in keep it in your church and let's just keep

00:00:53.180 peace in the neighborhood and keep peace in our city and keep religion separate from the broader

00:00:57.980 community if you want to have a parade if you want to have a picnic yeah that's fine of course 0.76

00:01:04.700 you know those are kind of one-offs right but you know to create something that's going to be

00:01:09.260 consistent and it's going to be every friday and maybe it's going to be maybe not once a day maybe

00:01:14.060 it ends up being twice a day and maybe it ends up being more days than one you know let's just sort

00:01:19.020 of kind of step back and keep it in our churches and keep it in our places where we worship and

00:01:24.940 that's as that's as simple as it is as soon as you say something negative about something like a

00:01:30.060 prayer like this people are getting labeled as being bigots and racists which is wrong because

00:01:35.980 soon and i think what's going wrong in our society as soon as people actually stand up and actually

00:01:42.300 want to oppose something or don't agree with something all of a sudden they become racist

00:01:47.340 and bigots i think that's wrong i think you know at the end of the day let's just

00:01:52.940 Let's keep things in our own churches, in our own mosques, in our own buildings, you know what, let's just keep the peace and let's just move on because things have been fine, you know, so we don't need to create this sort of tension in our community.

00:02:06.260 it's important to note that thankfully the municipal government does not have the authority

00:02:11.300 to restrict charter of rights and freedoms today we're celebrating the 100th anniversary of the

00:02:15.860 allegiance many of our grandparents fought or parents fought in the great wars so that everyone

00:02:20.500 can have the right to express their religion to express their political views to dissent

00:02:25.460 to assemble to proclaim and we respect those rights lest someone come and challenge their

00:02:31.540 own way of thinking praying and voting and so today is an opportunity for people to ask questions

00:02:39.140 to express their concerns but it's important to note the city council has no authority to

00:02:43.780 issue these permits but nor do cities across canada have any right thankfully to restrict

00:02:48.980 anything in the charter of rights and freedoms and i think that's an important point that needs

00:02:52.500 to be made thank you oh i got a question for you sure um the authority to issue these permits is

00:02:58.820 delegated from council to the police and uh just because there's nobody here to speak to this from

00:03:06.020 the police do you have any sense or has there been any conversation about uh what criteria

00:03:12.020 the police are going to be using in this case or any case uh to issue this noise permit when

00:03:17.540 because there's a request in right now to extend the noise permit the chief of police and the

00:03:23.380 the regina police issue permits under the existing noise bylaw and it is the parameters of that bylaw

00:03:29.460 that they use and until the bylaws change that those are the rules by which they operate but

00:03:34.100 it's important to note that should any city in canada choose to use their bylaws to restrict

00:03:40.660 freedom of religion freedom of expression political association assembly proclamation

00:03:45.460 that would violate the charter and the courts have restricted of that in an effort to protect

00:03:49.860 the charter so to put it quite simply the city of rajana as municipal corporation has no authority

00:03:55.300 to restrict religious freedoms or to change our noise bylaw in an effort to do that should we

00:04:00.500 choose okay thanks does anyone come to with uh concerns to you like what kind of concerns do

00:04:06.020 they have i'm sorry about almost all of the correspondence i've heard have been from out

00:04:10.980 of province and out of country uh folks what i've heard from my residents uh are questions

00:04:16.500 uh for context uh and i have found that in-person conversations over a cup of coffee or events like

00:04:22.900 this are great we need more in-person conversations look we can disagree uh our community is changing

00:04:28.260 change can feel uncomfortable change is also good uh and when you have an opportunity in person to

00:04:33.460 talk um that's how community is built and so my constituents have asked questions uh which are

00:04:38.820 are healthy today we have a survey on how to prayer because we have received some negative

00:04:48.100 feedback through social media so we want to make sure in canada here we are respecting each other

00:04:55.380 and we also want to understand like if we need to update anything we also are more than willing

00:05:02.260 to do that uh the reason we are here at an in-person survey because we want to reach our

00:05:09.700 neighbors and it's not too far for them also to be here so we thought we have a like a call to

00:05:16.500 like prayer like open house like a survey in person so we also know the neighbors we also

00:05:22.260 meet and greet you know if they have any comments they also can share in writing that also we would

00:05:28.020 share with the Regina Police Service because they are the one also extending the permit as you know

00:05:34.580 our the permit expired on last July 10 and we applied for extension before July 10 and we also

00:05:42.980 are going to share the feedback that we will have from today's survey with the Regina Police Services

00:05:50.180 and they're the one to decide. This is the first mosque in Canada then to broadcast the call to

00:05:56.260 prayer? Yes, in Regina, like so far I know, right, and in Saskatchewan, like so far we know that this

00:06:06.900 is the first mosque will be if we have the permit renewed from the Regina Police Services. This

00:06:15.220 will be the first mosque that will have the call to prayer with a loud speaker. And why did you 0.54

00:06:21.860 decide to be the first one how did this come about it is not that we have decided to be a

00:06:27.780 first one because we also did some research to see if we can have call to prayer with a loud

00:06:34.740 speaker and then based on the research we find this area falling under the downturn mostly are

00:06:40.500 the businesses and also um let the religious like the diversity right so all religions they have

00:06:49.780 their own like the the method to to call the people to come to pray so that is why we thought

00:06:56.900 that why not we are also having the call to prayer with a loud speaker because all most

00:07:04.500 culture of the country they have right so that also will help us to prove that we have a freedom of

00:07:10.740 religion.

Western Standard - July 17, 2026

Regina city councillors, Muslim community split over mosque call to prayer permit

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